February 2019: Commemoration battle of the Java Sea 1942

Bronbeek, 28 February 2019. The yearly commemoration of the battle of the Java Sea 1942 with the laying of a wreath was held today in the presence of the Marine Corps. Before the actual commemoration ceremony, dr. W.G.J. Remmelink presented his speech on the battle, illustrated with maps, and explained in detail the operational sequence of events and the ship movements. His presentation was based on his translation of Japanese source material from the Senshi Sōsho volume 26.

February 2019: Diplomatic Letters presented to the Embassy of Thailand

February 13th, The Corts Foundation presented her latest publication called “The Diplomatic Correspondence between the Kingdom of Siam and the Castle of Batavia during the 17th and 18th century” (translated in the Thai language) to the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand Mrs. Eksiri Pintaruchi.

January 2019: Senshi Sōsho 26 Editor's Choice Award 2018

The board of The Corts Foundation is honoured to announce that Stone & Stone awarded our second Senshi Sōsho- publication vol. 26 “ The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal” with her Editor's Choice Award for books of 2018 (see http://books.stonebooks.com/book/1019885/).

Stone & Stone recommended our publication as follows:“This English translation of volume 26 of the Japanese Senshi Sōsho series stands out as one of the most important WWII publications of the year. It's difficult to conceive how anyone can understand these operations from the IJN perspective without utilizing this work.”

Stone & Stone Second World War Books (http://stonebooks.com) does not buy, stock, publish, or sell books or anything else. They provide a strictly informational website, designed to offer fresh news every day about WWII-related books, publishers, booksellers, and authors. They also provide a wide range of book reviews, historical essays, an online WWII order-of-battle database, and an entertaining WWII Trivia Challenge. They have been building this site since 1995, and have almost 40,000 webpages of information available to explore and enjoy.

October 2018: Thai version realized of the Diplomatic Letters publication

The Corts Foundation is pleased to announce that the publication called “The Diplomatic Correspondence between the Kingdom of Siam and the Castle of Batavia during the 17th and 18th century” is translated and published in the Thai language. By translating original Dutch correspondence into English, Indonesian and now Thai, this unique correspondence becomes more accessible to historians worldwide, and especially also now in Thailand.

The important archival discovery of hundreds of diplomatic letters in the archives of the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia (ANRI) led to a project to highlight a few of these letters in particular. This treasure trove of unique correspondence between the Royal Court in Ayutthaya and Batavia Castle show the cultural heritage and the economic history of Southeast Asia. It is a rich source for the maritime history of Asia, as it specifies the old inter-Asian trade network and the close ties between kingdoms in the region.

The diplomatic letters are preserved in the archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) that were granted the status of UNESCO Memory of the World in 2004. They have a protected status and are regarded an important written source of global history. The correspondence is included in the archival series called ‘the Daily Journals of Batavia Castle’ (1624-1807) and are part of digitalized archives that can be accessed online at: www.sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id .

Sejarah Nusantara

The Corts Foundation and the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia proudly present a website, in both English and Indonesian language, that shows thousands of handwritten pages of the Dutch 17th and 18th century archives, inventories and searchable databases. This website focusses on a worldwide audience of people interested in the history of the Indonesian archipelago hidden as treasures in these old documents.

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Welcome

The 'Philippus Corts Foundation' is a Dutch foundation that is known abroad as 'The Corts Foundation'.

The foundation started in 2003 with the legacy capital of Kees Corts. His interest in the former Dutch East Indies and Indonesian history led to the support of many interesting projects in the past years.

History

C.W. Corts MSc was born on 24 May 1920 into a Dutch family living in Sumatra, where his father practiced medicine. In 1939 Kees Corts returned to the Netherlands for his tertiary education with his parents and younger brother, Philip. World War II proved to be a tragedy for the family, as Philip was executed during the occupation of the Netherlands.

Mission and Vision

The vision of The Corts Foundation is to make an important contribution to the preservation and dissemination of documentary heritage in the field of the History of World War II and Asian-European Relations so as to safeguard information on common and national history.

Organization

The 'Philippus Corts Stichting', working abroad as 'The Corts Foundation', aims to contribute to the preservation of the Dutch past in Eastern and South-East Asia. To accomplish this goal, the foundation works on two projects at the moment: “sustainable digital preservation of VOC-archives in Jakarta” and “translation of Japanese sources about the war in the former Dutch East Indies”.

is a Dutch non profit organization that uses the legacy of Kees Corts to perform history and archive projects concerning the former Dutch Indies, especially the period of the Dutch East India company, and end of the colonial period during World War II.